In a ruling delivered on Friday, a Bhopal court has sided with Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan and his family in a long-running dispute over ancestral land. The case, which has spanned over two decades, concerned a 16.62-acre property in the Nayapura area of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The court of the Fourteenth Additional Sessions Judge, Sanjay Agarwal, dismissed a petition challenging the Pataudi family's ownership rights, effectively bringing the legal battle to an end.
The dispute originated in 1998 when Aqeel Ahmed and others filed a petition claiming ownership of the land, alleging that the property was gifted to their ancestors by Nawab Hamidullah Khan, the former ruler of the Bhopal princely state, in 1936. They sought legal recognition of their ownership based on this claim. However, the court found that the petitioners failed to provide any credible documentary evidence to support their claim.
The court emphasized that the petition lacked sufficient evidence and was filed after an unreasonable and unexplained delay. These factors contributed to the dismissal of the case and the confirmation of the Pataudi family's ownership of the land. The ruling provides relief to Saif Ali Khan, his mother Sharmila Tagore, and his sisters, solidifying their rights to the valuable property in Bhopal.
Saif Ali Khan, who is considered the Nawab of Bhopal, has deep personal and historical connections to the city and owns several properties there. Some of these properties have been subject to legal proceedings in the past. This recent verdict marks a significant win for the family, resolving a long-standing challenge to their ancestral inheritance. While this ruling favored Saif Ali Khan, it is important to note that in July 2025, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had reversed a lower court order regarding the ownership of other ancestral properties worth approximately ₹15,000 crore, ordering a retrial in that matter. That case involved a dispute among descendants of Nawab Hamidullah Khan. The High Court's decision in 2025 was based on the government's classification of the estate as "enemy property" due to Saif Ali Khan's great-grandmother's migration to Pakistan after the Partition.
This recent ruling specifically addresses the 16.62-acre property and provides a favorable outcome for the Pataudi family, reinforcing their ownership rights amidst ongoing complexities surrounding their ancestral properties in Bhopal. The resolution of this particular dispute brings closure to one chapter of the family's legal challenges in the region.
